Calc comments fine in edit or view, not in mouse-over

English
#1

G’day.
New to LO after years with OOo.
Latest LO on Win11
Not a power user, just relatively simple Calc spreadsheets.

I use Comments to store usage codes, which then can be viewed when mousing over.
This worked reasonably well in OO Calc. but not so good in LO.

The only other forum discussion I found that came close to this problem was an old posting:

I read through a lot of the LO help files / Wiki stuff and this info helped me to do a good job of getting the Comments to look like I wanted. The Comments box when in edit and show modes is all good.

When in hidden mode and then moused-over the comments box is squashed (as below) causing lines to wrap to a new line. Makes it very difficult to use.

2025-07-27 LO Result
2025-07-27 LO Result863×1238 131 KB

WHY?

If anyone can point me to an article / previous post on how to solve this, it would be appreciated.

With thanks & best regards,
Ian

1 Like
#2

Guess what: you demonstrate a picture of something, but from it, no one would ever guess how it was expected to look; nor would one be able to experiment, using different versions and programs. :wink:

#4

(You may consider to read https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/uploads-images-vs-example-files-howto/107658.)

… as of… ?
= = =
disask124836_MouseOver_annotation.ods (13.7 KB)
How does MouseOver on cell C6 work for you?

= = =

I simply cannnot believe you want to have all that stuff in one line.

#6

Just tried to understand a bit better, and compared the behaviour of V 25.2.4.3 to that of V 7.5.4.2
There are obvious changes

  1. V 7 accepts and keeps changes in the width (by macro e.g.) also for hidden annotations. V 25 does not. It always sets the width automatically.
  2. On V 25 shows mandatorily Author/Date only for hidden comments with MouseOver.

I assume the changes were intentional. However, I don’t understand “2.”

#7

Yeah, I knew that would be a problem. As a new user the ‘system’ would only allow me a single image. Couldn’t show what the desired layout looked like.

Yep. Read it. Working on how to upload the problem cell in my spreadsheet. May take some time to experiment. 75 year old brain and all that.

“LibreOffice 25.2 is up to date.” when checking for updates.

Yes, as expected for a simple one-word Comment.

Hopefully the system will work and upload this file
2025-07-27 LO Comment example.ods (14.3 KB)

Hmmmm … we each do things our own way, eh? Basically I have a lot of simple codes that can be detected with simple IF statements ie if( b20=‘T1’; then do something) like place the $$s into a column that keeps track of just that category of expenses. Allows us to see just where all our money goes and in which category. Having the codes info in a comments box works for me, as my brain can’t remember all of them. Hence mousing over a cell to show the codes.

__

  1. V 7 accepts and keeps changes in the width (by macro e.g.) also for hidden annotations. V 25 does not. It always sets the width automatically.

OO v7 vs LO v25? Yes, that could be an answer. The problem seems that LO can’t detect how wide it needs to be.

  1. On V 25 shows mandatorily Author/Date only for hidden comments with MouseOver.
    I assume the changes were intentional. However, I don’t understand “2.”

Yes. I looked that up and there is a setting that lets me put my name into that as ‘Author’. I’m not working collaboratively, however. Seeing as it is just me working on this spreadsheet, I haven’t bothered with Author name stuff. [Stuffed up the quoting. Sorry.]

OK … Let’s see if this is any help.
Ian

ARRRRRGGGGHHHHH. Stupid system. Won’t allow two links. Removed the screenshot of good Comment. Hopefully the ODS example will work.

#8

There was never “OO v7”.

#9

Not helpful. What does 7 & 25 refer to then?

#10

They refer to LibreOffice versions.

The comment size problem likely is / related to tdf#158858.

tdf#73537; and search for “comment author” here on Ask.

For the future, you can always prepare a single “side by side” image in cases like this.

#11

Seems to be so. It may become a serious problem if you want help, and somebody trying to provide it has no chance to understand the concept behind the “own way”.

I expected your sheets would manage information, and annotations would actually be annotations.
= = =
Wanting to create “categories” and to know what ways money goes …

  • I simply can’t see how monster annotations should help with the task.
  • If you just need a reminder for abbreviations you have chosen, a piece of paper, probably taped to the wall would be recommendable, imo.
  • This was also the way tutorials about programming showed the available keywords for decades.
#12

7 and 25 are first parts of LibreOffice version numbers.
However you wrote earlier

There one could assume you used OpenOffice before at the same time. As there was never OO 7, but LO7 the precise letters are important.

#13

Another approach for this: Use Validity. Put your codes in a seperate sheet/column and allow only values from this list. You will have then a drop-down when you try to enter something in that fields.

#14

More on Validity in the HELP.

1 Like
#15

G’day everyone. Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to respond to my problem.

I would, however, like to return to my original posting.
.
Paraphrased, the problem is quite simple.

  1. LO WILL let me create (in Edit mode) a Comment of any size in any format I want.
    1.1) The formatting tool works fantastically well in this Edit mode.
    1.2) NOTE: I haven’t tried locking Comment size within the formatting tool.
  2. LO WILL correctly display that Comment in Show mode. Validates the Comment formatting.
  3. LO WILL NOT correctly display the Comment in Hidden mode (ie mouseover)

SO …

  1. Has anyone played with the sample I provided? If so,
    4.1) Can you confirm 2) and 3) above?
    4.2) Is my experience reproducible on OS’s other than my Win10 / 11?
    .
  2. Has anyone followed the last link (bug report?) provided in that 2003 discussion? ie " This is tdf#68695. "
    5.1) I’m not smart enough to understand all that’s mentioned in that report.
    5.2) I’m not even sure my problem is somehow related to that bug report.
    5.3) I can’t readily tell if that report has been actioned.
    .
  3. Returning to Lupp’s statement:
    “1. V 7 accepts and keeps changes in the width (by macro e.g.) also for hidden annotations. V 25 does not. It always sets the width automatically.”
    6.1) It seems to me that is EXACTLY what V 25 is NOT doing. In my example, it adjusts the mouseover height automatically, but not the width, thereby causing line wrapping, leading to formatting problems.
    .
    Let’s try to work out if this is intentional (ie have I discovered the Comments box max width?) or whether V 25 isn’t re-sizing the width automatically. I’m just a Calc user - I don’t know how Calc works internally. Is this something you Calc Gurus could look into?
    .
    Thanks & regards,
    Ian
#16

???
I have already given you the exact bug number that covers your problem. It points to the specific change that created the difference in popup processing, and even discusses the reason for that (the requirement for configurable / optional showing / hiding of the author / date, and thus changing the size of content / geometry). SO, in line with your questioning,

  1. Have you read what I wrote above?

The “Comments cannot be resized while editing” bug is unrelated to what you describe, at all.

#17

G’day. Thanks for that link.

Yes, I DID read that report, looked at the screenshots, etc. and towards the bottom of that page got well & truly lost.
.
Please remember that I am just a CALC user without the extensive knowledge that you have. Sometimes things that are clear to you are way above my comprehension level. For me to get a concept from a bug report is somewhat difficult. :exploding_head:
.
What I failed to grasp, therefore, was the relevance of a bug report referring to a picture being compressed was also the same problem for text-only in Comments.
.

I was, however, interested in this:

Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2024-01-10 22:58:45 UTC

The issue is related to the differently sized popup comment, likely since the fix for bug 73537. The popup comment is resized to fit the authorship information, which really becomes a problem when the comment is filled with a stretched picture, like here. If the image wasn’t stretched, but for example centred or tiled, the aspect ratio issue would be less of a problem (but the placement of the image would change, potentially crop it…). Confirming in: Version: 24.8.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community Build ID: a2ccc25ccb2e94f5990d6d413541dbcdd3a72338 CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 5.15; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3 Locale: en-AU (en_AU.UTF-8); UI: en-US Calc: threaded

.

“The popup comment is resized to fit the authorship information, which really becomes a problem when the comment is filled with a stretched picture, like here.”
Again, these references are all to pictures and, again, I didn’t see the relevance.
.
I was wondering if this reference to ‘Authorship’ is something Ludd referred to. I tried to explain then that I didn’t see the need for going into Authorship as I was the only one working on my own spreadsheets.
.
Does this mean I therefore have to mess around with the Authorship thing, just to get the Comments to format correctly?
I wasn’t expecting that - something I haven’t experienced before.
.
Also, thanks for clarifying the bug report I found wasn’ the same as my problem.

Thanks & regards
Ian

#18

The relevance is: the comment - its frame - is resized, to accommodate for authorship. Yes, the discussion was, how that affected a picture in a comment; but for you, the same resize gives your effect of text not fitting into the new width.

And no, disabling authorship display (available in Calc options) will not help - the algorithm will still not keep old size then, as far as I see. Maybe that is worth of an own bug report - with a request to at least revert to fixed size when the authorship is not shown.

#19

Thanks, mikekaganski.
.
So, it seems that basically something that worked for me previously no longer works in V25.
.
SIGH!
.
Regards,
Ian

1 Like
#21

G’day again.
Did a bit more digging and found something in the text box editing.
Only available by right click in Show mode.

Screenshot 2025-07-28 174003
Screenshot 2025-07-28 174003855×700 60.8 KB

Note that the area named ‘Adapt’ is greyed out and that the ‘height’ is ticked, but not the ‘Width’.

I have no idea what this means, but to me it would be logical to have that function NOT disabled so I can tick ‘Width’.
.
.

The other thing I mentioned before is about locking the size.

Screenshot 2025-07-28 173914
Screenshot 2025-07-28 173914776×616 67.9 KB

Nope - didn’t make any difference.

Regards,
Ian

Ahhh - good - I’m not at ‘Newbie’ level anymore. I can do multiple uploads, now!

#22

2025-07-28 10 30 00
2025-07-28 10 30 001470×625 74.7 KB

#23

Now today is already what yesterday was tomorrow.

1 Like

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